I thought I would stop derailing Brian's thread and create a place where we could discuss women and comics, both female characters and creators.

There are issues such as the recent firing/rehiring of Gail Simone by DC as well as the continuing war against Nancy A. Collins by the defenders of Dragon Con. I realize that a lot of my favorite women in comics are in all-ages books like Akiko by Mark Crilley.

Fandom is not always kind to women. I remember going to retailer and fan conventions and being treated as if I were from another planet.

I have recently picked up a Hellblazer gn, written by Denise Mina, a Scottish crime writer.

_________________A whole lot of access and privilege goes into being sanctimonious pricks J-DubDessert is currently a big bowl of sanctimonious, passive aggressive vegan enduced boak. FezzaYou people are way less funny than Pandacookie. Sucks to be you.-interrobang?!

I've gotten into some good gender friendly series such as Stumptown, Mind the Gap and Saucer Country. I've been keeping my eye on The Massive too. Womanthology came out with a Space series, and I hope they do another series with another theme, Space has been absolutely amazing. Glory had a two volume reboot, and what really drew me was the artwork. You very rarely see a woman superhero who is built like a brickhouse and just as physically intimidating as any male character. I've only seen that with Red She Hulk going into her monster form.

Its sucky that there's so little out there for superhero comics. Since Rucka left, Batwoman has been pretty much dominated by white characters and honestly it doesn't feel as queer as it could? I like Williams but its nothing like comics written by queer women, for queer women if that makes sense. Its very safe. That could be DC editorial of course. The first black woman at DC to have her own ongoing (Voodoo), and she was bisexual too, and a sex worker...and the very first panel in her very first issue, she's on her hands and knees. It got cancelled and small wonder. Demon Knights also saw the introduction of the first trans* superhero, Sir Ystin, the Shining Knight. I'm a little afraid the new writer might downplay that aspect of him or have him come out as a Mulan character or something, but I kinda think its going to be cancelled in the next year, so I could just have the first volumes and pretend nothing else happened.

_________________I was really surprised the first time I saw a penis. After those banana tutorials, I was expecting something so different. -Tofulish

A lot of stuff is published directly to graphic novels so I would say yes! Have you read Finder by Carla Speed McNeil? I think you might like it Panda.

I should mention that manga would be included given how many women and girls read it. I also know more than a few creators who have moved to web comics only so they should be included as well.

_________________A whole lot of access and privilege goes into being sanctimonious pricks J-DubDessert is currently a big bowl of sanctimonious, passive aggressive vegan enduced boak. FezzaYou people are way less funny than Pandacookie. Sucks to be you.-interrobang?!

Mainstream comics aren't gonna be a place to go if you want to see decent female characters. Any time somebody sneaks in and writes a story with a female character who isn't created in some dubious way or other, it's only a matter of time before it gets handed off to some other writer who shreds whatever was good and turns her back into some kind of stereotype. And that's if you're lucky. The alternative is Woman In Refrigerator.

And she still writes the graphic novels, just autobiography and not the same characters.

I love her stuff. I've got a few autobiographical graphic novels in the pile, I will dig them up.

_________________A whole lot of access and privilege goes into being sanctimonious pricks J-DubDessert is currently a big bowl of sanctimonious, passive aggressive vegan enduced boak. FezzaYou people are way less funny than Pandacookie. Sucks to be you.-interrobang?!

I would argue with any corporate owned character, you will have good and bad periods depending up on the creative team and editor. I don't think it's a superhero thing as much as it's a corporate thing.

I think that Perez's Wonder Woman was amazing but some of what came after was not. I want to go back and read Rucka's run on the book.

I have a friend who draws comics and he always drew his women with huge muscles because he wanted a woman with a sword to look as if she could pick it up.

Shy Mox, I was so sad to hear how they messed up Voodoo. I couldn't even pick it up.

_________________A whole lot of access and privilege goes into being sanctimonious pricks J-DubDessert is currently a big bowl of sanctimonious, passive aggressive vegan enduced boak. FezzaYou people are way less funny than Pandacookie. Sucks to be you.-interrobang?!

I would argue with any corporate owned character, you will have good and bad periods depending up on the creative team and editor. I don't think it's a superhero thing as much as it's a corporate thing.

Yeah, that's what I meant by "mainstream comics." They also tend to mostly be superhero books. Vertigo is a notable exception, mostly I think because they make an active attempt to NOT be DC.

The thing is, even if a good writer comes along, the stuff the bad writer wrote is now in the timeline and will probably be considered canon. As a writer, how much can you do with that? There's always that stuff hanging out in the past. That's one of the things that has driven me away from mainstream comics-- all that damn continuity.

I like Courtney Crumrin, Scary Godmother, The Moomins, Azumanga Daioh, Yotsube&!, Gloom Cookie and my all time favourite is The Nocturnals.

Somewhere I have a print from the Nocturnals...it is go good. I am pleased that Scary Godmother gets checked out a lot at my library! I will admit that my knowledge of manga is very, very poor.

There are likely to be lots of graphic novels at your local public library, by the way. Especially if someone like me gets to put in purchase ideas every month!

I just read that Gail Simone is going to be writing Red Sonja. I am intrigued but most of the Red Sonja books that are not Frank Thorne have disappointed.

_________________A whole lot of access and privilege goes into being sanctimonious pricks J-DubDessert is currently a big bowl of sanctimonious, passive aggressive vegan enduced boak. FezzaYou people are way less funny than Pandacookie. Sucks to be you.-interrobang?!

Last edited by Vantine on Sun Mar 03, 2013 9:09 am, edited 1 time in total.

I would argue with any corporate owned character, you will have good and bad periods depending up on the creative team and editor. I don't think it's a superhero thing as much as it's a corporate thing.

Yeah, that's what I meant by "mainstream comics." They also tend to mostly be superhero books. Vertigo is a notable exception, mostly I think because they make an active attempt to NOT be DC.

The thing is, even if a good writer comes along, the stuff the bad writer wrote is now in the timeline and will probably be considered canon. As a writer, how much can you do with that? There's always that stuff hanging out in the past. That's one of the things that has driven me away from mainstream comics-- all that damn continuity.

Vertigo was originally a place for non-code comics and creator owned comics. The second is likely to be the primary reason for it's difference.

_________________A whole lot of access and privilege goes into being sanctimonious pricks J-DubDessert is currently a big bowl of sanctimonious, passive aggressive vegan enduced boak. FezzaYou people are way less funny than Pandacookie. Sucks to be you.-interrobang?!

_________________A whole lot of access and privilege goes into being sanctimonious pricks J-DubDessert is currently a big bowl of sanctimonious, passive aggressive vegan enduced boak. FezzaYou people are way less funny than Pandacookie. Sucks to be you.-interrobang?!

I have a few lady friends involved in comic book stuff, which makes me feel pretty cool! One of Eppy's Dungeon Master's friends from college is this writer for a comic called To the Power Against, which I haven't read yet, but she is really cool, so I bet the comic is, too. I have another friend who is an editor at DC who has been working on the Li'l Gotham series, which I've really liked so far!

Sadly though, looking through the comics I have, not many are written by women. I don't collect that many, really just Buffy and it's spin offs, which have some women working on them and Adventure Time and it's spin offs, which also have a good mix.

I really liked Pesepolis 1&2 and i thought it was especially cool that my mom loved it, too. She used to read superhero comics when she was a kid, but definitely hadn't read any comic as an adult.

_________________I am not a troll. I am TELLING YOU THE ******GOD'S TRUTH****** AND YOU JUST DON'T WANT THE HEAR IT DO YOU?

Vertigo was originally a place for non-code comics and creator owned comics. The second is likely to be the primary reason for it's difference.

Yeah, that makes a big difference. It's interesting to see the DC Universe books that got absorbed into Vertigo, too-- Swamp Thing, Sandman. There were some weird (and sort of jarring) crossovers for a while there.

Sadly though, looking through the comics I have, not many are written by women. I don't collect that many, really just Buffy and it's spin offs, which have some women working on them and Adventure Time and it's spin offs, which also have a good mix.

Yeah, same here. Overall I find the 'nerd' subculture to be just as sexist as the rest of the world, so it doesn't surprise me that it's hard to find decent female characters.

_________________"The Tree is His Penis"

The tree is his penis // it's very exciting // when held up to his mouth // the lights are all lighting // his eyes start a-bulging // in unbridled glee // the tree is his penis // its beauty, effulgent -amandabear

Personally, I don't think a lot has changed in geek/nerd subculture since the 70's. Even if you brave your local comic shop or con, you are likely to face a ton of mansplaining and sexist jokes.

Comics Worth Reading by Johanna Draper Carlson has a list of comics by women that she's reviewed. There are a lot of good books there. She also links to books on Amazon that are by women but that she's not reviewed.

_________________A whole lot of access and privilege goes into being sanctimonious pricks J-DubDessert is currently a big bowl of sanctimonious, passive aggressive vegan enduced boak. FezzaYou people are way less funny than Pandacookie. Sucks to be you.-interrobang?!

My BFF in Tennessee was actually the guy who ran the comic store. I went in there because of Buffy comics and he was never rude or eye-rolly with me and we ended up becoming friends. I spent a lot of Brian's deployment hanging out in that shop and I read a lot more comics now because of him. But I know he's the exception, and one time he had to yell at a customer for making a joke about my tits.

_________________"The Tree is His Penis"

The tree is his penis // it's very exciting // when held up to his mouth // the lights are all lighting // his eyes start a-bulging // in unbridled glee // the tree is his penis // its beauty, effulgent -amandabear